The CEO Mark Wells of Games Workshop has posted a response to the people that have contacted them about the recent turn of events, primarily the european re-sellers not being able to sell overseas.

While this is a couple days old now, I figured posting this would add a little closure to the subject. OK, It wont for most people that really are angry, but for the past couple days I had better stuff to talk about, like my aunt Ruth's Dentures. It is Saturday morning, and I haven't had my coffee yet, so the post is finally going to get posted while I figure out which way is up.Sincerely,

Dear Hobbyists, Thanks for contacting Games Workshop about the change in our trading terms for European accounts. I know this has frustrated you and for that I am truly sorry. As a long standing customer, you deserve to know why we made this decision.

As you know, we introduce people to the Games Workshop hobby of collecting, painting and gaming with Citadel miniatures through our Hobby Centres and local independent trade accounts. Games Workshop Hobby Centres run introductory games and painting sessions, beginner lessons, hobby activities and events. We provide all these services free of charge. We only recover this investment if customers then buy products from us.

Where we don't have a Games Workshop Hobby Centre, we support local independent trade accounts. These businesses provide a convenient place for customers to buy our products close to where they live. We support these businesses with local customer service teams and warehouses to ensure customers have immediate access to our best selling products and new releases. Many customers discover the hobby this way.

In addition we invest millions of pounds every year in our design studio and factory to ensure that each month we release more new products. This makes the Games Workshop Hobby more exciting for existing customers, helping them stay in the hobby longer. We can only afford to do this because of the volume of customers we have recruited and developed through our local Hobby Centres and trade accounts.

It is for this reason that we have changed our European Trade terms. Over recent years, a number of currencies have moved a long way from their historical relative values, and this has opened the door for some traders to try to take advantage of these currency movements and offer deep discounts to overseas hobbyists. This has been the case with European internet traders selling to some of our customers overseas.

While this may seem great in the short term, the simple fact is that European internet traders will not invest any money in growing the hobby in your country. Their model is to minimise their costs and free-ride on the investment of Games Workshop and local independent shops in creating a customer base.

The inevitable consequence if this was allowed to continue is that Games Workshop would not be able to operate Hobby Centres, nor to support local trade accounts. And if this happened in more territories outside Europe, the loss of volume would leave Games Workshop no choice but to scale back our investment in new product development, further eroding our customer base. Not something that we or our customers would want us to do.

That is why we took the decision to take legitimate action to restrict European trade accounts from selling the goods they purchase from Games Workshop outside Europe.

While I understand that you may still be unhappy with our decision, it was taken to ensure we can continue to support the Games Workshop hobby communities around the world through our Games Workshop Hobby Centres and local trade accounts. And to ensure we continue to invest in developing the best possible new product releases every month. I hope therefore that over time you will see the benefits of this decision for you and your hobby.

Email to Join the Faeit 212 Blog Exchange

Subscribe Now

Subscribe for Exclusive News and Rumors Straight to Your Inbox.

Page Views

Copyright

This website is completely unofficial and is in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, White Dwarf, the White Dwarf Logo, and all associated markes, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units and illustrations and images from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, or other sources, are either TM and or Copyright by their respective owners or Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2017, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. All images are Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

Data Collection

We Collect no data about you save for that captured by a cookie to provide us with anonymous information about site navigation.

Cookies are small pieces of text information created by websites and stored on your computer. We only use cookies to provide us with anonymous information about site navigation. No other information is stored in cookies, and cookies are not used for any other purpose. You should also be aware that whilst the above paragraph describes our use of cookies, some advertisers on this site may also collect data using cookies. The use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data is used in the ad serving process. We do not have access to this data. Google uses the DART cookie to serve ads to our users based on their previous visits to our sites and other sites on the internet. Users may opt out of the use of DART cookies by visiting Google Ad and content network privacy policy at
http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Protection

We will not retain any details that you provide, except for your email address if you contact us and this will never be disclosed to third parties. Customers are free to opt out of the news services by following the instructions on the bottom of each news email if subscribed to.

Links

This website contains links to other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. We encourage you, when you leave this website, to read the privacy statements/policies of each and every website you visit, as this particular privacy applies solely to this particular website

Privacy Policy

We respect your right to privacy. None of the information the site collects is passed on to other parties, except when required as part of the business services we provide for you, or as required under United States Law.